[Funding Roundup] edustoke, NewsReach, CarzSo.com raise early-stage funding

Virtual pre-owned car company CarzSo.com raises $700,000

CarzSo, a virtual pre-owned car company, raised Rs 5 crore (about $700,000) from investors led by Mytash (an Indian investment arm of US early-stage investment fund). 

Founded in 2019 by Vaibhav Sharma, the startup offers a digital experience through its online platform, which displays a range of cars with details and pictures.

"The role of digitisation in the pre-owned car transactions has been profound, which is seen in the rapid increase in pre-owned car-related search queries," said Vaibhav. "We came up with a vision of building India’s first auto showroom in the “metaverse” space. We are also aggressively working on bringing the “Virtual Reality” technology in the Indian auto industry, which could be a game-changer in taking the auto industry online."

The startup plans to launch three to five virtual stores to improve its presence in rural, Tier II and III markets and plans on filing multiple patents for the use of “Virtual Reality” technology in the auto space. 

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edustoke raises seed funding from Indus Initiatives

Edtech startup Edustoke has raised $400,000 (Rs 3 crore) in a seed round from New Delhi-based social research organisation Indus Initiatives. 

Founded in 2017 by IIM-NIT alumnus Pawas Tyagi and Rohit Malik, edustoke is an online platform that helps parents find information about pre-school to K-12 spaces.

In the last six months, edustoke’s user base has doubled, and institutional client base tripled, the company said in a statement. 

The startup will use the capital to invest in technology to bolster its platform and to scale to new cities in India. “We aim at expanding to 45 new cities within the country and internationally and anticipate a 3X growth this year,” said Pawas Tyagi, Co-founder, edustoke. 

In the last four years, edustoke has helped 12 million parents in choosing the right school for their child, and in the process, has helped over 2,000 schools reach prospective parents and thousands of enrolments, the company said. 

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NewsReach raises capital in fresh funding round

Ahmedabad-based digital media tech startup NewsReach raised funding from a consortium of investors like JITO Angel Network,  Indian Micro VC firm Beyond Partners, CIIE initiative Startup Oasis, Bharat Pe Co-founder Shashvat Nakrani, Angel investor and Leviosa Founder Sharan Aggarwal.

Founded in 2018 by Darshan Shah and Soniya Kundnani, NewsReach digitally transforms and partners with newspaper publishers, reporters, and PGCs from rural and semi-urban areas to provide them with a platform to reach out to the global audience and monetise their content.

NewsReach will use the fresh capital to further strengthen its operations and technology stack.

Over the last month, NewsReach has experienced over 10X growth in traction on signup requests for its one-of-a-kind content marketplace, presently in public beta on an invitation basis, the company said in a statement. 

“The necessity of this age is to redefine, consolidate, and streamline the entire ecosystem. Content creators, publishers, influencers, and advertisers desperately need an integrated growth environment. And, we at NewsReach, are redefining the whole vernacular news and content ecosystem in India,” said Darshan Shah, Co-founder, NewsReach.

Cloud Tailor raises $1 million in pre-Series A

Cloud Tailor, a D2C personalised women’s fashion platform, raised $1 million in a pre-Series A round led by 35North Ventures and Mergerdomo.

Founded in December 2020 by husband-wife duo Susmitha and Rudra Lakkakula, Cloud Tailor is a homegrown app-based tailoring solution that offers doorstep measurements, pickup, and delivery.

The startup aims to be operational in 20 cities in the coming two quarters. It plans to grow its customer base to more than 15 countries globally for its D2C personalised fashion orders.

“We’re glad to have found the perfect partners who support our vision of creating and optimising consumer experience in personalised fashion like never before, disrupting the D2C fashion space through technology and cultivating consumer relationships across the globe,” said Susmitha.